---
type: "Bill"
title: "Groundwater."
description: "Existing law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, requires all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the Department of Water Resources that are designated as basins subject to critical conditions of overdraft to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2020, and requires all other groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2022, except as specified."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20152016"
identifier: "AB 617"
citation: "California AB 617 (20152016)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Groundwater."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Perea"]
version_count: 12
action_count: 32
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2015-02-24"
last_action: "2015-10-09"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/bdf15287-8a20-4f1f-ae4c-abf149066883"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB617"
source_hash: "a347db0f1f3fbbabba39ff56b650687c4f83df010f1ad7e21292acd34eede801"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 617 (20152016) — Groundwater.

Existing law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, requires all groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins by the Department of Water Resources that are designated as basins subject to critical conditions of overdraft to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2020, and requires all other groundwater basins designated as high- or medium-priority basins to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan or coordinated groundwater sustainability plans by January 31, 2022, except as specified.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/24/15 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB617&version=20150AB61799INT)
2. **03/26/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB617&version=20150AB61798AMD)
3. **04/14/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB617&version=20150AB61797AMD)
4. **04/23/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB617&version=20150AB61796AMD)
5. **05/28/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB617&version=20150AB61795AMD)
6. **06/29/15 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB617&version=20150AB61794AMD)
7. **07/16/15 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB617&version=20150AB61793AMD)
8. **08/31/15 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB617&version=20150AB61792AMD)
9. **09/04/15 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB617&version=20150AB61791AMD)
10. **10/09/15 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB617&version=20150AB61789CHP)
11. **AB617** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB617)
12. **09/14/15 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB617&version=20150AB61790ENR)

## Votes

- AB 617 PEREA Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **79–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended, but first amend, and re-refer to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **9–0** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading AB617 Perea By Pavley — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended. — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 617 PEREA Assembly Third Reading — **77–1** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **14–0** (pass) · lower
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Perea — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2015-02-24** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2015-02-25** From printer. May be heard in committee March 27.
- **2015-03-26** Referred to Com. on W., P., & W. `referral-committee`
- **2015-03-26** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on W., P., & W. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-04-06** Re-referred to Com. on W., P., & W. `referral-committee`
- **2015-04-14** In committee: Set, first hearing. Further hearing to be set.
- **2015-04-14** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on W., P., & W. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-04-15** Re-referred to Com. on W., P., & W. `referral-committee`
- **2015-04-23** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on W., P., & W. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-04-27** Re-referred to Com. on W., P., & W. `referral-committee`
- **2015-04-28** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 14. Noes 0.) (April 28). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-05-06** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2015-05-28** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (May 28). `amendment-introduction, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2015-05-28** Read second time and amended. Ordered returned to second reading. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-06-01** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-06-02** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 77. Noes 1. Page 1806.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-06-02** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2015-06-11** Referred to Com. on N.R. & W. `referral-committee`
- **2015-06-29** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on N.R. & W. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-07-16** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (July 14). `amendment-introduction, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2015-07-16** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, reading-2, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-08-17** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2015-08-27** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (August 27). `amendment-introduction, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2015-08-31** Read second time and amended. Ordered to third reading. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-09-04** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `reading-3, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-09-08** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-09-09** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2636.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-09-09** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2015-09-10** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 79. Noes 0. Page 3059.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2015-09-18** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2015-10-09** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2015-10-09** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 666, Statutes of 2015.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/bdf15287-8a20-4f1f-ae4c-abf149066883`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).